Three Misconception of Oil Use in Painting

Fine arts are an art meant for aesthetic and intellectual purposes where it is judged visually through masterpieces such as paintings, drawings, graphics, architectures, and watercolor. It is a visual representation of one’s creativeness; though not everyone may be fascinated by fine arts, there is still a huge population of pros, art enthusiasts, and even mere appreciators.

Stereotypes do not just apply as a description to a group of people, it may also apply to art media used by people to do their artworks; most would generalize how one media could be used and it would stay that way. Just like how we talk about watercolors, pastels, or certain images and we get to have an idea on our minds about these mediums without asking for further questions.

One of the commonly tagged art medium used by artists is oil. Below are the three most common misconception and truth about using oil as your painting medium.

Oil Is So Hard To Work With

Others believe that oil is harder to handle, when actually; it’s the easiest medium to use. They are slow drying that is why it is easier to accomplish blending techniques. Its colors are more vivid compared to other mediums; oils have the richest and saturated color amongst the mediums. Contrary to beliefs, watercolors will actually lighten when they dry out, acrylics will get dull and dark as they dry out, unlike oil its color will remain the same; what you see is what you would get. Oils hues as you paint it would remain as it is, what you see is what you’ll get. Adjusting the vividness of the color is not needed anymore, since oil shade as you paint it would remain the same. If you opt for a fast dry and vivid medium, oil is the right choice.

One Messy Pal

Oil is messy to work with – actually, it is not far that messy, it’s just like all the other mediums; “messy” would depend on how the handler would use it; Acrylics, watercolors, and oils uses a liquid solvent for, glazing, cleaning up, and thinning the painting. You should be cautious not to slosh liquid all over the place especially your masterpieces, if you are one who doesn’t like to have a lot of tools around for cleaning after every session, you could settle for disposable paper palettes and simply throw it away after use.

Clean But Doesn’t Smell Good

One of the issues a user has with the medium is how clingy the oils are on their brushes. Oils tend to stick to the brush making it hard to use if you decide to use it with other mediums. In cleaning brushes after oil use, the chemicals used to clean it leave an unwanted smell that is even present in your next session. However, oil users would attest that those strong scented chemicals are not just the ones you could use; there are already many brush cleaners specifically for oil use that does not leave you with those pungent smells. Click here to read more about painting.